Henrik Sedin’s path to get to this point has had its fair share of bumps in the road, but as he etches his name onto yet another franchise record, it is clear that his career accomplishments are becoming the stuff of legend.

Let’s take a quick look at what he’s managed to accomplish in his first 1140 games as a Canuck.

The first time Henrik Sedin ever pulled on a Vancouver Canucks jersey was on June 26th, 1999, the date of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. Henrik was selected 3rd overall, immediately following his twin brother’s selection. The wheeling and dealing that led Brian Burke to select both brothers in referenced in the video below, which also mentions some of the pressures and expectations they faced as they entered the league.

The twins returned to their pre-draft team, MODO of the Swedish Elite League, for the entirety of the 1999-2000 season, where Henrik put up 47 points in 50 games, finishing eighth in league scoring at the age of 19.

Henrik played his first NHL game, his first game as a Canuck, on October 5th, 2000. Henrik played 13:08 and took one shot on net, in a game which the Canucks lost 6-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Henrik didn’t have to wait long to get his first NHL point. In just their second game, Henrik set up Daniel Sedin for the first time in their careers.

Daniel from Henrik became a refrain that we would go on to hear seemingly countless times.

About a week later, Henrik scored his first NHL goal. Known as the passing Sedin rather than a scorer, Henrik’s first goal was appropriately unorthodox. 

Despite the label of not being a scorer, Henrik has gone on to score 220 NHL goals to date, with time to add plenty more before his time is up.

Following the full season NHL lockout, the Sedins became legitimate first line players, posting totals at, near or above a point per game pace every year for eight seasons. In 2008, Henrik Sedin was named to his first NHL All Star game. He has participated in two more since, scoring a goal and added six assists in those three games.

There wasn’t much to like in the all-star games under the five-on-five format, but Scott Hartnell being mic’d up during Henrik Sedin’s only all-star goal is pretty damn entertaining.

While they had been top line talent for a number of years already. the Sedins made to the jump to the truly elite in the 2009-10 campaign.

In a season in which the Canucks were among the league’s strongest teams, Henrik began to put up massive numbers. Even when Daniel was sidelined to several weeks, he did not slow down – in fact, he scored goals more frequently than he ever had before.

All told, Henrik finished the campaign with 29 goals and 83 assists, totalling 112 points. With a four point night in the final game of the season, Henrik broke Pavel Bure’s single season scoring record of 110 points, as well as giving himself a lead in the league scoring race that stood up to the end of the season, earning him the franchise’s first ever Art Ross Trophy.

Both of these honours were locked up in spectacular fashion, as Henrik set Daniel up for a hat-trick, which culminated with this beautiful goal, one of the prettiest in Canucks history.

During their first 39 seasons, a couple of Canucks had come close to being scoring champions, but had fallen short. In the year that Pavel Bure set the previous franchise mark of 110 points, he was 13th in league scoring, because it was 1993 and that’s the kinda thing that happened back then.

Markus Naslund was much closer in the spring of 2003, when he took the league lead in both goals and points into the final game on the season. Infamously, he went pointless, and was surpassed by Milan Hejduk and Peter Forsberg for the goals lead and points lead, respectively.

Henrik Sedin, on the other hand, capped his career year fabulously (as seen above) and earned his franchise’s first ever Art Ross Trophy. 

For his efforts in the same season, Henrik also won the franchise’s first ever Hart Memorial Trophy and the NHL’s most valuable player. A few Canucks had won awards previously, with Markus Naslund earning the Pearson Trophy in 2003 as the M.V.P. as voted by the players, Trevor Linden winning the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1997, and Pavel Bure winning the Calder Trophy in 1992.

But none carry the cachet of the Hart.

During his Art Ross season, Henrik surpassed Trevor Linden as the Canucks all-time leader in assists on March 14th, 2010, appropriately on a goal by Daniel.

This is one of his most deserved records, as he is rightfully regarded as the best playmaker is franchise history, as well as one of the greatest playmakers of his era.

With 83 assists that season, it was also the first of three consecutive seasons that Henrik led the NHL in helpers, a feat only previously accomplished by Stan Mikita, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, and Joe Thornton.

After leading the entire NHL in points, Henrik was appointed the captain of the Vancouver Canucks in a ceremony during the Canucks home opener of the 2010-11.

(I was totally there that night, just to inject myself into the history of Henrik Sedin.)

There were some naysayers at the time, as some believed that Ryan Kesler was more deserving of the captaincy. I think we can be fairly certain at this point that the right choice was made.

At the end of his current contract, Henrik will have been captain for eight seasons, tying the team record held by Stan Smyl. It’s not inconceivable that the Sedins return at a discounted rate for a season or two, if their production continues, to be depth players if the team has regained competitiveness. If this happens, Henrik would appropriately break yet another Canucks record.

Following the 2010-11 season, the Sedins returned to Earth in terms of their point totals, finishing closer to a point per game rather than the sky high numbers they had put up in the two seasons previous. Even then, earning the franchise’s all-time record in points was an inevitability, and Henrik finally accomplished the feat on February 15th, 2013.

Given the fact that the Sedins have often been called “soft” throughout their careers, one of Henrik’s most impressive accomplishments is the fact that he owns the sixth longest ironman streak (consecutive games played) in the history of the NHL. Following his return to the lineup from a rib injury on March 21st, 2004, Henrik dressed in 679 consecutive Canucks games.

Naturally, Henrik being Henrik, he tried to shrug off any credit for such an impressive streak and tried to defer the honour to the Canucks training staff instead.

On March 12th, 2014, Henrik played in his 1000th NHL game. Though Trevor Linden had previously played over 1,000 games as a Canuck, Henrik became the first in franchise history to play his first 1,000 games with the franchise.

Despite having a down year in 2013-14, the Sedins came back with a vengeance the following season, both of them topping the 70-point plateau. On March 3rd, 2015, Henrik scored a marvelous goal on Sharks netminder Antti Niemi for his 900th career point. Already the Canucks all-time leader, he was naturally the first Canuck to do so.

Henrik Sedin heads into tonight’s game sitting on 953 career points. Every assist and point he puts up now is a new franchise record. With 27 games to go in the 2015-16 season, and at least two in the NHL following this one, Henrik is a virtual lock to hit 1000 points, obviously becoming the first Canuck to do so.

As time goes on, even the most resistant fans acknowledge how lucky we as Vancouver fans have been to witness the careers of two of the greatest hockey players to ever play in Canuck jerseys. Tonight we celebrate Henrik as a breaks yet another Canucks record, and we can once again reflect on what an amazing career he has had to this point. The fact that he’s doing it in Trevor Linden’s old colours just adds to the majesty of it.